Gorilla Composting at McGill University
by Bonnie Alter, London on 01.25.07
Who says students are apathetic? Here is a small group of eager beavers at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, who have introduced composting to students living on and near campus. They call themselves Gorilla Composting, because “it is a play on guerrilla tactics — we could see that there was no standard process for making McGill environmentally accountable." They want to make McGill the first Montreal institution that composts all its organic waste--now the City of Montréal requires that 60% of compostable waste be diverted from landfills. Individuals can join for $5 a year and receive a re-sealable 1-gallon plastic container (sporting the Gorilla logo) for easy home storage and easy transport to McGill, plus, nifty buttons and plenty of free sawdust (to help soak up moisture).
The group provides detailed information on composting and worm bins. Students deliver the buckets of organic waste to a depot at the school. In addition, the volunteers collect organic waste from many university buildings and cafeterias across the downtown campus. Gorilla Composting takes all the raw organic material and composts it. At the end of the season students can get free, rich, nutritious compost for their gardens, or window boxes. So far they reckon that they collect one tenth of McGill’s organic waste output. The composting pilot project is the first step for Gorilla Composting. If their next proposal is approved, they would be in charge of a campus-wide system for every building and residence, and develop an appropriate composting facility for that scale of operation. Eventually, the end product could be sold back to the University for use on its grounds. ::Gorilla Composting
Pretty good, considering McGill got a lousy "C+" in the Sustainability at Colleges report card.
i swear, Canada is like the coolest country ever.
This is even better than the "gorrilla composting" we did in college (throwing our apple cores and banana peels into the dense landscaping.)
This is even better than the "gorrilla composting" we did in college (throwing our apple cores and banana peels into the dense landscaping.)
Hey, I just threw a banana peel under a big pine tree when visiting my alma mater! My sister goes to McGill; I'll be sure to tell her about this.
Hello everyone,
Does anyone know the people that started this program? I would like to contact them because our college is beginning a composting program and would like some info from these people. thanks
Juan verg0024@umn.edu